By David Kronke, Staff Writer

It happens: A writer will kill off a beloved character before his or her fans' appetite has been sated. British mystery novelist Colin Dexter ended the career of his beloved Inspector Morse with his book "The Remorseful Day," which also ended the "Inspector Morse" TV series in 2000.

But Morse had a partner, Inspector Lewis (Kevin Whately), who has now been promoted to his own series, titled on these shores, unsurprisingly, "Inspector Lewis." Three new mysteries, not based on Dexter's writings but simply inspired by Lewis' character, will appear on "Masterpiece Mystery!" over the ensuing weeks.

Lewis isn't as eccentric or grandiose as Morse was; in fact, he's a pretty subdued, average middle-age guy, still licking his wounds over the hit-and-run death of his wife. His new partner, James Hathaway (Laurence Fox), is the overly educated team member (and one can imagine yet another spinoff sometime down the line). But the labyrinthine murder mysteries remain pretty much the same.

Tonight's episode, "Whom the Gods Would Destroy," opens with the murder of a down-on-his-luck artist who signs his paintings in Greek, which leads Lewis and Hathaway to a trio of his college chums who were inspired by Dionysus and called themselves "The Sons of the Twice-Born." One might be inclined to think that if killers are going to leave clues so literate and highfalutin, give 'em a break because that's preferable to a crack deal gone bad, but Lewis and Hathaway won't have much of that thinking.

Next week, in "Old School Ties," Lewis is assigned to protect a formerly imprisoned computer-hacker-turned-bestselling-novelist; he despises the lout's coarse bravado and seemingly effortless seduction of women. The guy's murder reunites Lewis with a youthful sweetheart (Gina McKee), who just happened to be married to the scoundrel. This series' one drawback is that it trucks in a few too many melodramatic contrivances like this.

The final episode of this series (more are to come), "Expiation," finds Lewis and Hathaway investigating a suburban suicide that they're certain was no such thing, and requiring the assistance of a dying professor who violated a young student to solve the crime (another narrative convenience – the dying man lapses into a coma while offering his evidence). It eventually escalates into a quite messy tale of wife-swapping and far worse.

Whately and Fox both turn in agreeably understated performances yet boast a winning chemistry; their moments of droll wit enliven the action more than you'd imagine.

Given how convoluted the murder plots tend to get, you're better off, if you're one who likes to try to solve the crimes ahead of the detectives, to attempt to discern visual clues rather than plot particulars: Where does the camera begin in certain shots? How do peripheral characters react to information? Of course, the filmmakers will try to throw you off with a bevy of red herrings, but that just adds to the unfussy but intelligent fun of "Inspector Lewis."

David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke@dailynews.com www.insidesocal.com/tv/